Royston Henry Shaw (11 March 1936 – 14 July 2012), also known as Roy “Pretty Boy” Shaw, Roy “Mean Machine” Shaw and Roy West, real estate investor, author and businessman from the East End of London who was formerly a criminal and Category A prisoner. During the 1970s–1980s, Shaw was active in the criminal underworld of London and was frequently associated with the Kray twins. Shaw is best remembered today for his career as a fighter on the unlicensed boxing scene, becoming an arch-rival with Lenny McLean.

THE FORMER GUV’NOR HAS PASSED AWAY BUT HIS MEMORY LIVES ON HERE AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION AT LITTLEDEAN JAIL

Picture By: Jules Annan Picture Shows:Andy Jones with Roy “Pretty Boy ” Shaw’s boxing trunks and the Belt presented to Roy when he was the undisputed unlicensed British Heavyweight boxing champion between 1975 and 1981 . Roy sadly passed away 14th July 2012 . These items and other Roy Shaw material are on display at the Crime Through Time Collection at Littledean Jail Date 21st July 2012

HAVING HAD THE GREAT HONOUR TO HAVE MET AND KNOWN ROY FOR MORE THAN 30 YEARS AND HAVING ATTENDED A GREAT MANY EVENTS WITH HIM DURING THIS TIME , HE WAS CERTAINLY A VERY TOUGH AND CHARISMATIC PERSON … TO SAY THE LEAST.

UNDOUBTEDLY ONE OF THE TOUGHEST MEN I HAVE EVER MET …. TRUE GENT AND OLD SCHOOL ALTHOUGH AS MANY OF HIS CLOSE FRIENDS AND ACQUAINTANCES WOULD WELL KNOW… ONE YOU WOULD NOT WISH TO ANTAGONISE, UPSET OR CROSS .

HERE AT LITTLEDEAN JAIL WE HAVE LONG FEATURED A NUMBER OF PERSONAL EXHIBIT ITEMS THAT ONCE BELONGED TO ROY SHAW AND USED BY HIM THROUGHOUT HIS UNLICENSED BOXING CAREER ..

THESE ITEMS WERE KINDLY GIFTED AND PRESENTED TO MYSELF DURING AN INVITED PRIVATE VISIT TO HIS HOME BACK IN THE YEAR 2000 .

THESE INCLUDE HIS UNDISPUTED , UNOFFICIAL, UNLICENSED BRITISH HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP BELT , HIS BOXING TRUNKS, TRAINING GLOVES , ORIGINAL FIGHT POSTERS ETC….. HE ALSO CONTRIBUTED A NUMBER OF PERSONALLY SIGNED PHOTO’S TO BE INCLUDED IN AND AMONGST THIS PERMANENT EXHIBITION AREA HERE AT THE JAIL…

BELOW: ROY SHAW GIFING AND PRESENTING HIS UNOFFICIAL BRITISH HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP BELT ( DATED 1975-1981 ) AND BOXING SHORTS TO ANDY JONES OF THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION… AT ROY’S HOME BACK IN THE YEAR 2000

BELOW ARE A COUPLE MORE VIDEO FILM CLIPS RELATING TO ROY SHAW ….ALSO BELOW THESE A FEW MORE GALLERY IMAGES OF ROY SHAW AND SOME OF THE ITEMS ON DISPLAY HERE AT LITTLEDEAN JAIL …. INCLUDING ORIGINAL FIGHT POSTERS ETC……

Picture By: Jules Annan
Picture Shows:Andy Jones with Roy “Pretty Boy ” Shaw’s boxing trunks and the Belt presented to Roy when he was the undisputed unlicensed British Heavyweight boxing champion between 1975 and 1981 . Roy sadly passed away 14th July 2012 . These items and other Roy Shaw material are on display at the Crime Through Time Collection at Littledean Jail
Date 21st July 2012
Ref: *World Rights Only*
*Unbylined uses will incur an additional discretionary fee!*

Original painting by Gloucestershire artist Paul Bridgman… on display at The Crime Through Time Collection , Littledean Jail , along with various other handwritten and signed memorabilia from Jeffery Dahmer .

TRUE CRIME, MURDERABILIA, MAIMERABILIA, THE TABOO AND BIZZARE ARE ALL HERE ON DISPLAY AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION , LITTLEDEAN JAIL, UK

HERE ARE SOME MORE HISTORICALLY INTERACTIVE DETAILS, PHOTO GALLERY (VERY GRAPHIC IN PARTS) …. AND VIDEO DOCUMENTARY FOOTAGE TOUCHING UPON ONE OF THE WORLDS MOST DEBAUCHED AND EVIL KILLERS – JEFFREY DAHMER .

HERE ON DISPLAY AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION , LITTLEDEAN JAIL , FOREST OF DEAN , GLOUCESTERSHIRE, UK….. WE HAVE HANDWRITTEN AND SIGNED LETTERS FROM JEFFREY DAHMER AND OTHER NOTORIOUS AMERICAN AND BRITISH SERIAL KILLERS , PROVIDING AN INTRIGUING AND DISTURBING INSIGHT INTO THE MINDS OF THESE MONSTERS FROM HELL .

AS A POLITE WARNING TO ALL POTENTIAL VISITORS HERE, TO OUR FACEBOOK PAGE OR TO THE MUSEUM ….. PLEASE DO AVOID A VISIT TO LITTLEDEAN JAIL IS EASILY DISTURBED, EASILY OFFENDED OR OF A SENSITIVE NATURE .AS WE ALWAYS SAY … CRIME IN ITSELF IS AN UNPLEASANT SUBJECT MATTER TO COVER AND AS SUCH IS NOT PRESENTED HERE IN A PLEASANT WAY EITHER .

Handwritten and signed (Jeff) letter sent by Jeffrey Dalmer on the 26 May 1993

CERTAINLY NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN EITHER

Jeffrey Dahmer was one of the most notorious American serial killers. Between 1978 and 1991, Dahmer killed 17 boys and men, many of whom were of Asian or African descent. However it wasn’t the body count that made him such a notorious serial killer. It was the way he tortured and raped his victims before death found them. It was also about how he dismembered his victims and practiced necrophilia and cannibalism on them.

Jeffrey Dahmer Biography

Born as Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer on May 21, 1960 in West Allis, Wisconsin to Lionel Herbert Dahmer and Joyce Annette (née Flint), Jeffrey Dahmer grew up to be a normal child. However as the relationship between his parents grew cold, so did his feelings of neglect and withdrawal. His family moved to Bath, Ohio when he was 8 year old. Uninterested in social interactions with other children from the neighborhood he was new into, Jeffrey rode around on his bicycle, collecting dead animals for dissection. Some he brought back home (like a good household cat), some he played with in the woods. At one point, he impaled a dog’s head on a stake.

When he became a teenager, Jeffrey Dahmer started to abuse alcohol. Tension between his parents escalated resulting in bitter divorce which only strengthened the boy’s feeling of abandonment. His mother took Jeffrey’s younger brother and left without a trace, leaving vulnerable Dahmer to stay with his father who left the family long time ago. Having no means to contact his mother or brother, Jeffrey felt lost and rejected.

By the time of his high school graduation, Jeffrey Dahmer was an alcoholic. He dropped out of the Ohio State University after one quarter, having failed to attend most of his classes because he was constantly drunk. Since giving him education didn’t go over so well, Jeffrey’s father enlisted his son in the army. He was a decent soldier (army medic), but his excessive alcoholism resulted in a discharge after two years in service. He felt no emotional connection to his father, so after his discharge in 1981, Jeffrey Dahmer headed for Miami, Florida to avoid living in cold weather. He continued drinking and was arrested a few months later for drunk and disorderly conduct.

Jeffrey moved in with his grandmother Shari Dahmer in 1982. She said Jeffrey was a gentle person but when he got drunk (which was often), it took four policemen to hold him down. In 1982 and 1986, Jeffrey Dahmer was arrested for indecent exposure, the latter involving masturbation in front of two boys.

Jeffrey Dahmer’s Murders

Jeffrey Dahmer committed his first murder when he was 18 years old. It was shortly after his parent’s divorce – his mother and his brother moved out and his father was on a business trip. Having the house in Bath Township, Ohio all for himself and feeling alone, Jeffrey picked up a hitchhiker named Stephen Hicks, took him to the house and killed him with a barbell because the guest wanted to leave. Once Stephen Hicks was dead, Jeffrey Dahmer smashed his bones with a hammer and buried the body in the backyard. He wouldn’t kill again for 9 years.

His second victim was 24 year old Steven Toumi. Jeffrey met him in a gay bar in 1987. Gay bars offered great settings where he could approach young homosexual or bisexual males, ask them to come over to his place for beers or offer them money to pose for photos, drug them into a deep sleep with spiked drinks, strangle or stabbed them while they were out and unleash his sexual fantasies on the cadaver. When he was done having anal sex with fresh corpses, he would dismember them with a hacksaw, usually keeping their genitalia and heads as trophies. Lean muscles would be stored in a freezer to be eaten as food. Whatever was left was boiled with acids and/or other chemicals and flashed down the drain. Sometimes, if his victim did not die instantly, he would drill a hole in the victim’s skull and paralyze the brain with boiling water or hydrochloric acid. The victim would remain alive for several days, but in a zombie like state.

While staying with his grandmother, Jeffrey Dahmer continued collecting dead animals and dissecting them in her basement which caused foul smell throughout the house. Coupled with his strange behavior and late nights, the grandmother asked him to move out. On September 25, 1988, while employed as a worker at the Ambrosia Chocolate Factory, Jeffrey moved into an apartment in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. One day later, he was arrested for drugging and sexually exploiting a 13 year old Laotian boy named Somsack Sinthasomphone. That made him a registered sex offender and landed him with one year in a work release camp and five years probation. He was released on a parole two months early, moved into a new apartment and began his most prolific string of murders. The apartment’s address is now infamous (though the building has been torn down):

After his scuffle with the above mentioned 13 year old boy Somsack Sinthasomphone which landed Jeffrey Dahmer with 10 months long incarceration and a registration as a sex offender, Jeffrey took a hold of Somsack’s younger brother, now 14 year old Konerak Sinthasomphone and brought him home for another one of his fantasy butt sex sessions from hell. Heavily drugged and bleeding profusely out of his ass after a little rectal massage from Jeffrey Dahmer’s stiffy, Konerak Sinthasomphone escaped and was discovered wandering down the street naked in the early morning hours of May 27, 1991 by 18 year old Sandra Smith and her cousin of the same age – Nicole Childress. The teens called 911, as even though the Asian boy could not speak any English, the state he was in sent strong signals that something was not right.

Dahmer, who was 31 at the time, chased the boy down the street and got to him before the police arrived. The girls who alerted the police got in the way and halted the escort until the police arrived. Dahmer told them that the boy was his 19 year old boyfriend, that they were drinking and got in an argument so he walked out of his apartment naked and under influence. The police failed to verify the boy’s age and run a background check on Dahmer which would have revealed that he was a registered child molester still under probation. Instead, they swallowed Dahmer’s story and took both men back to Dahmer’s apartment – despite protests from the girls who called 911. The police noted strange smell when they walked inside Dahmer’s apartment, but did nothing to investigate it. As became clear later, the smell was caused by the corpse of Tony Hughes – Dahmer’s previous victim whose decomposing body he still kept in the bedroom. Had the police done their due diligence, Konerak Sinthasomphone as well as four subsequent victims would not have been murdered.

Jeffrey Dahmer’s Arrest

Encouraged by the success with Konerak Sinthasomphone whom he strangled to death, dismembered and beheaded to keep his skull as a trophy, Jeffrey Dahmer went on a killing spree almost averaging one victim per week. He killed Matt Turner on June 30, 1991, then Jeremiah Weinberger on July 5, 1991, then Oliver Lacy on July 12, 1991 and finally Joseph Brandehoft on July 19, 1991. His next victim was to be 32 year old Tracy Edwards, whom he lured into his apartment on July 22, 1991. With this bad boy things didn’t go quite the way Jeffrey would have liked, though.

When Robert Rauth and Rolf Mueller, the cops from the Milwaukee police department drove through the neighborhood where Dahmer lived, they noticed a dazed black male wandering around with one handcuff on his hand, they knew something wasn’t right. They asked Tracy Edwards what happened to him and were told that he was invited into an apartment of some weird dude with whom he watched movies, but was then drugged and the weird dude tried to handcuff him. He resisted and slipped away, so the dude threatened him with a knife. Tracy Edwards retracted to the bedroom where he saw the wall covered with Polaroid pictures of mangled bodies. There was a large blue barrel by the wall from which a horrible smell was coming out. Wielding a large butcher knife, the weird dude tried to attack him, but Tracy Edwards fought back, punched him in the face and kicked him in the stomach, affording himself a way to escape from there, though still wearing a handcuff on one wrist.

Tracy Edwards lead the police to the apartment where they were greeted by friendly acting Jeffrey Dahmer. He told them that he just lost the job at the chocolate factory (which was true) and the stress it caused made him lose temper and overreact. The police asked him to get the key from the handcuffs so they could be removed from Tracy Edwards’ hand. Jeffrey went to his bedroom, but was followed by one of the cops who noticed all the Polaroid photos of dismembered bodies all over the wall and was overwhelmed by the stench of rotting flesh coming out of the room. He proceeded to further inspect the apartment and had his attention caught by a fridge covered with more gruesome Polaroid photos. The shock came when he opened said fridge. There was a severed human head on the shelf. The officer screamed at his partner to which Jeffrey Dahmer responded by fighting his way out of there. He was restrained and apprehended.

Thorough inspection revealed three more heads and human flesh in the freezer. Several hands and a penis were found in a stockpot in a closet. Two gray-painted boiled skulls were found on a shelf in a bedroom closet. More penises were found preserved in formaldehyde. But most of all – there were hundreds of gory photos of his victims which Jeffrey Dahmer photographed while they were alive, while they were being murdered, and after they were dead. In his closet, the police also discovered an altar of human skulls and candles. Jeffrey Dahmer allegedly planned to use the skulls to build a shrine.

Jeffrey Dahmer’s Trial

Dahmer admitted to every crime he had committed. He made no excuses and blamed nobody but himself. He was indicted on 17 murder charges, but found guilty on 15. He entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity but the court rejected his plea on February 17, 1992 and sentenced him to 15 life terms in jail, which would add up to 957 years behind bars. The state of Wisconsin does not have capital punishment.

Jeffrey Dahmer’s Murder

Jeffrey Dahmer served his long sentence at the Columbia Correctional Institution in Portage, Wisconsin. He was murdered on November 28, 1994 while serving his time by inmate Christopher Scarver who attacked him and another inmate named Jesse Anderson with a broom stick, killing both. Christopher Scarver said he was acting on God’s command to kill Dahmer.

Christopher Scarver Handwritten envelope sent to Kenneth G Karnig , with his return address in top left corner

Above : Charles Manson seen here in open coffin after his death on November 19, 2017

Charles Milles Manson (né Maddox, November 12, 1934 – November 19, 2017) was an American criminal, cult leader, and songwriter. In the late 1960s, he formed what became known as the Manson Family, a quasi-commune in California. Manson’s followers committed a series of nine murders at four locations in July and August 1969. In 1971 he was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder for the deaths of seven people, all of which were carried out at his instruction by members of the group. Manson was also convicted of first-degree murder for two other deaths.
At the time the Manson Family began to form, Manson was an unemployed ex-convict who had spent half of his life in correctional institutions for a variety of offenses. Before the murders, he was a singer-songwriter on the fringe of the Los Angeles music industry, chiefly through a chance association with Dennis Wilson, drummer and founding member of the Beach Boys. Manson believed in what he called “Helter Skelter”, a term he took from the Beatles’ song of the same name to describe an impending apocalyptic race war. He believed the murders would help precipitate that war. One of his songs, “Cease to Exist”, was recorded by the Beach Boys and renamed “Never Learn Not to Love”. It was released as a B-sided single in 1968 without Manson’s credit.
From the beginning of Manson’s notoriety, a pop culture arose around him in which he ultimately became an emblem of insanity, violence and the macabre. After he was charged with the crimes of which he was later convicted, recordings of songs written and performed by Manson were released commercially, starting with Lie: The Love and Terror Cult (1970). Various musicians have covered some of his songs. Manson was originally sentenced to death, but his sentence was commuted to life with the possibility of parole after California invalidated the state’s death penalty statute in 1972. He served out his life sentence at California State Prison in Corcoran and died at age 83 in 2017.

Charles Manson is a convicted serial killer who has become an icon of evil. In the late 1960s, Manson founded a hippie cult group known as “the Family” whom he manipulated into brutally killing others on his behalf.

Here’s some interactive information , a brief photo gallery and video footage relating to the infamous cult leader Charles Manson and The Manson Family

FROM THE HANDS OF DEATH

Here on display at the Crime Through Time Collection at Littledean Jail , Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, UK ………..we have a number of handwritten and signed letters etc from Charles Manson and some of his disciples along with various other American and UK serial killers.

November 12, 1934 —

Also Known As:

Charles Milles Maddox, Charles Milles Manson

Overview of Charles Manson:

Charles Manson was born in Cincinnati, Ohio to 16-year-old Kathleen Maddox. Kathleen had run away from home at the age of 15 and spent the next few decades drinking too much, with periods of time spent in jail.

Since his mother couldn’t take care of him, Charles spent his youth at the homes of various relatives and often at special reform schools and boys homes. By age nine, Charles Manson had already started stealing and soon added burglary and stealing cars to his repertoire.

Manson Gets Married

In 1954, at age nineteen, he was released on parole after an unusual bout of good behavior. The next year, he married Rosalie Willis, a waitress, and they had a son together, Charles Manson Jr. (born March 1956). Even while married, Manson had continued making extra money by stealing cars. In April 1956, he was again sent to prison. After Manson had been in prison for a year, his wife found someone new and divorced Manson in June 1957.

Manson the Con Man

In 1958, Manson was released from prison. While out, Manson began pimping, stealing checks from mailboxes, and conned a young woman out of money. He also married again, to a woman named Leona, and fathered a second son, Charles Luther Manson. Manson was again arrested on June 1, 1960 and sent to the McNeil Island Penitentiary off the coast of Washington. His wife soon divorced him.

Music in Prison

Manson spent the next six years in prison. It was during this time that he befriended the infamous Alvin “Creepy” Karpis, former member of Ma Barker’s gang. After Karpis taught Charles Manson to play the steel guitar, Manson became obsessed with making music. He practiced all the time, wrote dozens of original songs, and started singing. He believed that when he got out of prison, he could be a famous musician.

Manson Gets a Following

On March 21, 1967, Manson was once again released from prison. This time he headed to San Francisco where, with a guitar and drugs, he began to get a following. In 1968, he and several followers drove to Southern California.

Manson was still hoping for a music career. Through an acquaintance, Manson met and hung out with Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys. The Beach Boys did record one of Manson’s songs, which appeared as “Never Learn Not to Love” on the B-side of their 20/20 album.

Through Wilson, Manson met Terry Melcher, Doris Day’s son. Manson believed Melcher was going to advance his music career but when nothing happened, Manson was very upset.

During this time, Charles Manson and some of his followers moved into the Spahn Ranch. Located northwest of San Fernando Valley the Spahn Ranch had been a popular location to film westerns in the 1940s and 1950s. Once Manson and his followers moved in, it became a cult compound for “the Family.”

Helter Skelter

Charles Manson was good at manipulating people. He took pieces from various religions to form his own philosophy. When the Beatles released their White Album in 1968, Manson believed their song “Helter Skelter” predicted an upcoming race war. “Helter skelter,” Manson believed, was going to occur in the summer of 1969 when blacks were going to rise up and slaughter all the white people. He told his followers that they would be saved because they would go underground, literally, by traveling to an underground city of gold located in Death Valley.

However, when the Armageddon that Manson had predicted did not occur, he said he and his followers must show the blacks how to do it.

Manson Orders the Murders

Manson told four of his followers to go to 10050 Cielo Drive in Los Angeles and kill the people inside. This house once belonged to Terry Melcher, the man who had not helped Manson with his music career. However, Melcher no longer lived there; actress Sharon Tate and her husband, director Roman Polanski, had rented the house. On August 9, 1969, four of Manson’s followers brutally murdered Tate, her unborn baby, and four others who were visiting her (Polanski was in Europe for work). The following night, Manson’s followers brutally killed Leno and Rosemary LaBianca in their home.

Manson’s Trial

It took the police several months to determine who was responsible. In December 1969, Manson and several of his followers were arrested. The trial began on July 24, 1970. On January 25, Manson was found guilty of first degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. On March 29, 1971, Manson was sentenced to death.

Life in Prison

Manson was reprieved from the death penalty in 1972 when the California Supreme Court outlawed the death penalty. Charles Manson now serves a lifetime sentence and periodically comes up for parole.

Though he’s been in prison for over three decades, Charles Manson has received more mail than any other prisoner in the U.S. Charles Manson is currently being held in California’s Corcoran Prison.

Possibly of little significance to visitors …. however I love this item which has been recently discovered and acquired for display here . Intriguingly this early Victorian Prison Warden/Guard tunic button is worded LITTLE DEAN (AS TWO WORDS) WITH PRISON BENEATH (INSTEAD OF GAOL ) … as opposed to it’s early title as having been “Littledean Gaol”.

BELOW: ORIGINAL VICTIORAN STRAIGHT JACKET THAT WAS FOUND IN LITTLEDEAN JAIL’S ATTIC SPACE BY BUILDERS DURING RENOVATION WORK BACK IN 1986 AND SUBSEQUENTLY DONATED TO THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION FOR PERMANENT DISPLAY HERE AT THE JAIL

CORPORAL PUNISHMENT THROUGH THE AGES AS WELL AS AN INSIGHT INTO PRESENT DAY CORPORAL PUNISHMENTS TOO, AS FEATURED AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION HERE AT LITTLEDEAN JAIL

ABOVE :AN ARRAY OF VARIOUS 19TH CENTURY HANDCUFFS, RESTRAINTS AND LEG IRONS HERE ON DISPLAY AT THE JAIL .

CORPORAL PUNISHMENT IN MALAYSIA FOR RAPE, ARMED ROBBERY , DRUGS ETC

ORIGINAL EARLY 16TH- 17TH CENTURY HANDMADE OAK “VILLAGE PUNISHMENT STOCKS” RESTORED IN THE 19TH CENTURY WITH ADDITIONAL SUPPORTING IRONWORK AND PRESERVED FOR POSTERITY ….. AS CAN NOW BE SEEN AT LITTLEDEAN JAIL,LITTLEDEAN, FOREST OF DEAN, GLOUCESTERSHIRE, UK

VILLAGE STOCKS

Stocks are devices used in the internationally, in medieval, Renaissance and colonial American times as a form of physical punishment involving public humiliation. The stocks partially immobilized its victims and they were often exposed in a public place such as the site of a market to the scorn of those who passed by. Since the purpose of putting offenders in the stocks was to expose them to ridicule and mockery, passers-by were encouraged to throw mud, rotten eggs, moldy fruit and vegetables, smelly fish, offal, and excrement (both animal and human) at those being punished.

EARLY VICTORIAN BLUDGEON USED IN UK PRISONS …. HERE ON DISPLAY AT THE JAIL WITH PRISON WARDEN TRUNCHEON AND HIATT STEEL HANDCUFFS

EARLY VICTORIAN BLUDGEON USED IN UK PRISONS

CLOSE-UP OF HIATT STEEL HANDCUFFS

corporal punishment is a form of physical punishment that involves the deliberate infliction of pain as retribution for an offence, or for the purpose of disciplining or reforming a wrongdoer, or to deter attitudes or behaviour deemed unacceptable. The term usually refers to methodically striking the offender with an implement, whether in judicial, domestic, or educational settings.

Corporal punishment of minors within domestic settings is lawful in all 50 of the United States and, according to a 2000 survey, is widely approved by parents.[1]It has been officially outlawed in 29 countries.[2]

Corporal punishment in school is still legal in some parts of the world, including 20 of the States of the USA, but has been outlawed in other places, including Canada, Kenya, Japan, South Africa, New Zealand, and nearly all of Europe except the Czech Republic[3] and France.[4]

Judicial corporal punishment has virtually disappeared from the western world but remains in force in many parts of Africa and Asia.

History of corporal punishment

He that spareth the rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him correcteth him betimes.[5]
Withhold not correction from a child: for if thou strike him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and deliver his soul from hell.[6]

It was certainly present in classical civilisations, being used in Greece, Rome, and Egypt for both judicial and educational discipline.[7] Some states gained a reputation for using such punishments cruelly; Sparta, in particular, used them as part of a disciplinary regime designed to build willpower and physical strength.[8] Although the Spartan example was extreme, corporal punishment was possibly the most frequent type of punishment. In the Roman Empire, the maximum penalty that a Roman citizen could receive under the law was 40 “lashes” or “strokes” with a whip applied to the back and shoulders, or with the “fasces” (similar to a birch rod, but consisting of 8–10 lengths of willow rather than birch) applied to the buttocks. Such punishments could draw blood, and were frequently inflicted in public.

In Medieval Europe, corporal punishment was encouraged by the attitudes of the medieval church towards the human body, flagellation being a common means of self-discipline. This had an influence on the use of corporal punishment in schools, as educational establishments were closely attached to the church during this period. Nevertheless, corporal punishment was not used uncritically; as early as the eleventh century Saint Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury was speaking out against what he saw as the excessive use of corporal punishment in the treatment of children.[9]

From the 16th century onwards, new trends were seen in corporal punishment. Judicial punishments were increasingly turned into public spectacles, with public beatings of criminals intended as a deterrent to other would-be offenders. Meanwhile, early writers on education, such as Roger Ascham, complained of the arbitrary manner in which children were punished.[10] Perhaps the most influential writer on the subject was the English philosopher John Locke, whose Some Thoughts Concerning Education explicitly criticised the central role of corporal punishment in education. Locke’s work was highly influential, and may have helped influence Polish legislators to ban corporal punishment from Poland’s schools in 1783.[11]

During the 18th century, the concept of corporal punishment was attacked by some philosophers and legal reformers. Merely inflicting pain on miscreants was seen as inefficient, influencing the subject only for a short period of time and effecting no permanent change in their behaviour. Some believed that the purpose of punishment should be reformation, not retribution. This is perhaps best expressed in Jeremy Bentham’s idea of a panoptic prison, in which prisoners were controlled and surveyed at all times, perceived to be advantageous in that this system supposedly reduced the need of measures such as corporal punishment.[12]

A consequence of this mode of thinking was a reduction in the use of corporal punishment in the 19th century in Europe and North America. In some countries this was encouraged by scandals involving individuals seriously hurt during acts of corporal punishment. For instance, in Britain, popular opposition to punishment was encouraged by two significant cases, the death of Private Frederick John White, who died after a military flogging in 1846,[13] and the death of Reginald Cancellor, who was killed by his schoolmaster in 1860.[14] Events such as these mobilised public opinion, and in response, many countries introduced thorough regulation of the infliction of corporal punishment in state institutions such as schools, prisons and reformatories.

In the 1870s, courts in the United States overruled the common-law principle that a husband had the right to “physically chastise an errant wife”.[15] In the UK the traditional right of a husband to inflict moderate corporal punishment on his wife in order to keep her “within the bounds of duty” was similarly removed in 1891.[16][17] See Domestic violence for more information.

In the United Kingdom, the use of judicial corporal punishment declined during the first half of the 20th century and it was abolished altogether in 1948, while most other European countries had abolished it earlier. Meanwhile in many schools, the use of the cane, paddle or tawse remained commonplace in the UK and the United States until the 1980s. In several other countries, it still is: seeSchool corporal punishment.

Modern use

Corporal punishment in the home

Domestic corporal punishment, i.e. of children and teenagers by their parents, is usually referred to colloquially as “spanking“, “whipping“, “smacking,” or “slapping.” One possible method of spanking is to have the child or teenager lying, stomach down, across the parent’s lap, with the parent bringing their open hand down upon the child’s buttocks. Alternatively, the youngster might be told to bend over, or lie face down across a bed.[18] Spankings may be delivered over the trousers, over the undergarments, or upon the bare buttocks.[19]

In an increasing number of countries it has been outlawed, starting with Sweden in 1979.[2] In some other countries, corporal punishment is legal, but restricted (e.g. blows to the head are outlawed and implements may not be used, and/or only children within a certain age range may be spanked).

In the United States and all African and most Asian nations, “spanking,” “whipping,” “smacking,” or “slapping” by parents is currently legal; it is also legal to use certain implements such as a belt or paddle.

In Canada, spanking by parents or legal guardians (but nobody else) is legal, as long as the child is not under 2 years or over 12 years of age, and no implement other than an open, bare hand is used (belts, paddles, etc. are strictly prohibited). Provinces can legally impose tighter restrictions than the aforementioned national restrictions, but none currently does so.

In the UK, spanking or smacking is legal, but it may not leave a mark on the body and in Scotland since October 2003 it has been illegal to use any implements when disciplining a child.

In Pakistan, Section 89 of Pakistan Penal Code allows corporal punishment. The Government of Pakistan has yet to repeal this law.[20]

Corporal punishment in schools

Legal corporal punishment of school students for misbehaviour involves striking the student on the buttocks or the palm of the hand in a premeditated ceremony with an implement specially kept for the purpose such as a rattan cane or spanking paddle, or with the open hand.

Judicial or quasi-judicial punishment

Some countries retain judicial corporal punishment, including a number of former British territories such as Botswana, Malaysia, Singapore and Tanzania. In Malaysia and Singapore, for certain specified offences, males are routinely sentenced to caning in addition to a prison term. The Singaporean practice of caning became much discussed around the world in 1994 when American teenager Michael P. Fay was caned for vandalism.

A number of countries with an Islamic legal system, such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Sudan and northern Nigeria, employ judicial whipping for a range of offences. As of 2009, some regions of Pakistan are experiencing a breakdown of law and government, leading to a reintroduction of corporal punishment by ad hocIslamicist courts.[21] As well as corporal punishment, some Islamic countries such as Saudi Arabia and Iran use other kinds of physical penalties such asamputation or mutilation.[22][23][24] However, the term “corporal punishment” has since the 19th century usually meant caning, flogging or whipping rather than those other types of physical penalty.[25][26][27][28][29][30][31]

Pros and cons of corporal punishment

According to its proponents, corporal punishment offers several advantages over other kinds of punishment, such as that it is quicker to implement, costs nothing, and deters unruliness.[32][33]

The American Psychological Association opposes the use of corporal punishment in schools, juvenile facilities, child care nurseries, and all other institutions, public or private, where children are cared for or educated. It claims that corporal punishment is violent and unnecessary, may lower self-esteem, and is liable to instil hostility and rage without reducing the undesired behaviour. The APA also states that corporal punishment is likely to train children to use physical violence.[34]

The professor of philosophy, David Benatar, points out that using this last argument, fining people also teaches that forcing others to give up some of their property is an acceptable response to unwanted behaviour in others. “Why don’t detentions, imprisonments, fines, and a multitude of other punishments convey equally undesirable messages?” According to Benatar, the key difference lies in the legitimacy of the authority administering the punishment: “[T]here is all the difference in the world between legitimate authorities—the judiciary, parents, or teachers—using punitive powers responsibly to punish wrongdoing, and children or private citizens going around beating each other, locking each other up, and extracting financial tributes (such as lunch money). There is a vast moral difference here and there is no reason why children should not learn about it. Punishing children when they do wrong seems to be one important way of doing this.”[35]

Kay Hymowitz in her book, Who Killed Discipline in School? states, “Ask Americans what worries them most about public schools and the answer might surprise you; discipline. For several decades now, poll after poll shows it topping the list of parents’ concerns. Hymowitz says that, “the public’s sense that something has gone drastically wrong with school discipline isn’t mistaken. Over the past thirty years or so, the courts and federal government have hacked away at the power of educators to maintain a safe and civil school environment.”[36]

Anatomical target

Different parts of the anatomy may be targeted:

The buttocks, whether clothed or bare, have often been targeted for punishment, particularly in Europe and the English-speaking world.[28] Indeed, some languages have a specific word for their chastisement: spanking in English, fessée in French, nalgada in Spanish (both Romanesque words directly derived from the word for buttock). The advantage is that these fleshy body parts are robust and can be chastised accurately, without endangering any bodily functions; they heal well and relatively quickly; in some cultures punishment applied to the buttocks entails a degree of humiliation, which may or may not be intended as part of the punishment.

Chastising the back of the thighs and calves, as sometimes in South Korean schools, is at least as painful if not more so, but this can cause more damage in terms of scars and bruising.

The upper back and the shoulders have historically been a target for whipping, e.g. in the UK with the cat-o’-nine-tails in the Royal Navy and in some pre-1948 judicial punishments, and also today generally in the Middle East and the Islamic world.

Ritual and punishment

Corporal punishment in official settings, such as schools and prisons, has typically been carried out as a formal ceremony, with a standard procedure, emphasising the solemnity of the occasion. It may even be staged in a ritual manner in front of other students/inmates, in order to act as a deterrent to others.

In the case of prison or judicial punishments, formal punishment might begin with the offender stripped of some or all of their clothing and secured to a piece of furniture, such as a trestle or frame,[38][39](X-cross), punishment horse or falaka. In some cases the nature of the offence is read out and the sentence (consisting of a predetermined number of strokes) is formally imposed. A variety of implements may be used to inflict blows on the offender. The terms used to describe these are not fixed, varying by country and by context. There are, however, a number of common types that are encountered when reading about corporal punishment. These include:

In some instances the offender is required to prepare the implement himself. For instance, sailors were employed in preparing the cat o’ nine tails that would be used upon their own back, while school students were sometimes sent out to cut a switch or rod.

In contrast, informal punishments, particularly in domestic settings, tend to lack this ritual nature and are often administered with whatever object comes to hand. It is common, for instance, for belts, wooden spoons, slippers, hairbrushes or coathangers to be used in domestic punishment, while rulers and other classroom equipment have been used in schools.

In parts of England, boys were once beaten under the old tradition of “Beating the Bounds” whereby a boy was paraded around the edge of a city or parish and would be spanked with a switch or cane to mark the boundary.[40] One famous “Beating the Bounds” took place around the boundary of St Giles and the area where Tottenham Court Road now stands in central London. The actual stone that separated the boundary is now underneath the Centre Point office tower.[41]

Corporal punishment, paraphilia and fetishism

The German psychologist Richard von Krafft-Ebing suggested that a tendency to sadism and masochism may develop out of the experience of children receiving corporal punishment at school.[42] But this was disputed by Sigmund Freud, who found that, where there was a sexual interest in beating or being beaten, it developed in early childhood, and rarely related to actual experiences of punishment.[43]

Capital punishment in the United Kingdom was used from the creation of the state in 1707 until the practice was abolished in the twentieth century. The last executions in the United Kingdom, by hanging, took place in 1964, prior to capital punishment being abolished for murder (in 1969 in Great Britain and in 1973 in Northern Ireland). Although not applied since, the death penalty remained on the statute book for certain other offences until 1998.[1]

Sir Samuel Romilly, speaking to the House of Commons on capital punishment in 1810, declared that “…(there is) no country on the face of the earth in which there [have] been so many different offences according to law to be punished with death as in England.”[citation needed] Known as the “Bloody Code“, at its height the criminal law included some 220 crimes punishable by death, including “being in the company of Gypsies for one month”, “strong evidence of malice in a child aged 7–14 years of age” and “blacking the face or using a disguise whilst committing a crime”. Many of these offences had been introduced to protect the property of the wealthy classes that emerged during the first half of the 18th century, a notable example being the Black Act of 1723, which created 50 capital offences for various acts of theft and poaching.Background

Whilst executions for murder, burglary and robbery were common, the death sentences for minor offenders were often not carried out. However, children were commonly executed for such minor crimes as stealing. A sentence of death could be commuted or respited (permanently postponed) for reasons such as benefit of clergy, official pardons, pregnancy of the offender or performance of military or naval duty.[2] Between 1770 and 1830, 35,000 death sentences were handed down in England and Wales, but only 7,000 executions were carried out.[3]

There were prisons, but they were mostly small, old and badly-run. Common punishments included transportation — sending the offender to America, Australia or Van Diemens Land (Tasmania), or execution — hundreds of offences carried the death penalty. By the 1830s people were having doubts about both these punishments. The answer was prison: lots of new prisons were built and old ones extended. The Victorians also had clear ideas about what these prisons should be like. They should be unpleasant places, so as to deter people from committing crimes. Once inside, prisoners had to be made to face up to their own faults, by keeping them in silence and making them do hard, boring work. Walking a treadwheel or picking oakum (separating strands of rope) were the most common forms of hard labour.

Reform

In 1808 Romilly had the death penalty removed for pickpockets and lesser offenders, starting a process of reform that continued over the next 50 years. The death penalty was mandatory (although it was frequently commuted by the government) until the Judgement of Death Act 1823 gave judges the power to commute the death penalty except for treason and murder. The Punishment of Death, etc. Act 1832 reduced the number of capital crimes by two-thirds. Gibbeting was abolished in 1832 and hanging in chains was abolished in 1834. In 1861, several acts of Parliament (24 & 25 Vict; c. 94 to c. 100) further reduced the number of civilian capital crimes to five: murder, treason, espionage, arson in royal dockyards, and piracy with violence; there were other offences under military law. The death penalty remained mandatory for treason and murder unless commuted.

Juveniles under 16 could no longer be executed from 1908 under the Children Act 1908. In 1922 a new offence of Infanticide was introduced to replace the charge of murder for mothers killing their children in the first year of life. In 1930 a parliamentary Select Committee recommended that capital punishment be suspended for a trial period of five years, but no action was taken. From 1931 pregnant women could no longer be hanged (following the birth of their child) although in practice since the 18th century their sentences had always been commuted, and in 1933 the minimum age for capital punishment was raised to 18 under the Children and Young Persons Act 1933. The last known execution by the civilian courts of a person under 18 was that of Charles Dobel, 17, hanged atMaidstone together with his accomplice William Gower, 18, in January 1889.

In 1938 the issue of the abolition of capital punishment was brought before parliament. A clause within the Criminal Justice Bill called for an experimental five-year suspension of the death penalty. When war broke out in 1939 the bill was postponed. It was revived after the war and to everyone’s surprise was adopted by a majority in the House of Commons (245 to 222). In the House of Lords the abolition clause was defeated but the remainder of the bill was passed. Popular support for abolition was absent and the government decided that it would be inappropriate for it to assert its supremacy by invoking the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949 over such an unpopular issue.

Instead, then Home Secretary, James Chuter Ede, set up a new Royal Commission (the Royal Commission on Capital Punishment, 1949–1953) with instructions to determine “whether the liability to suffer capital punishment should be limited or modified”. The Commission’s report discussed a number of alternatives to execution by hanging (including the US methods of electrocution and gassing, and the then-theoretical lethal injection), but rejected them. It had more difficulty with the principle of capital punishment. Popular opinion believed that the death penalty acted as a deterrent to criminals, but the statistics within the report were inconclusive. Whilst the report recommended abolition from an ethical standpoint, it made no mention of possible miscarriages of justice. The public had by then expressed great dissatisfaction with the verdict in the case of Timothy Evans, who was tried and hanged for murdering his baby daughter in 1949. It later transpired in 1953 that John Christie had strangled at least six women in the same house; if the jury in Evans’s trial had known this, Evans would probably not have been found guilty. There were other cases in the same period where doubts arose over convictions and subsequent hangings, such as the notorious case of Derek Bentley.

The Commission concluded that unless there was overwhelming public support in favour of abolition, the death penalty should be retained.

By 1957 a number of controversial cases highlighted the issue of capital punishment again. Campaigners for abolition were partially rewarded with the Homicide Act 1957. The Act brought in a distinction between capital and non-capital homicide. Only six categories of murder were now punishable by execution:

in the course or furtherance of theft

by shooting or causing an explosion

while resisting arrest or during an escape

of a police officer

of a prison officer by a prisoner

the second of two murders committed on different occasions (if both done in Great Britain).

The police and the government were of the opinion that the death penalty deterred offenders from carrying firearms and it was for this reason that such offences remained punishable by death.

Abolition

The only known photograph of the death sentence being pronounced in England and Wales, for the poisoner Frederick Seddon in 1912[8]

Murder

In 1965 the Labour MP Sydney Silverman, who had committed himself to the cause of abolition for more than 20 years, introduced a private member’s bill to suspend the death penalty, which was passed on a free vote in the House of Commons by 200 votes to 98. The bill was subsequently passed by the House of Lords by 204 votes to 104.

Following the abolition of the death penalty for murder, the House of Commons held a vote during each subsequent parliament until 1997 to restore the death penalty. This motion was always defeated, but the death penalty still survived for other crimes:

However no executions were carried out in the United Kingdom for any of these offences, after the abolition of the death penalty for murder.

Nevertheless, there remained a working gallows at HMP Wandsworth, London, until 1994, which was tested every six months until 1992. This gallows is now housed in the Galleries of Justice inNottingham.[13]

Wales: Vivian Teed, 24, in Swansea on 6 May 1958, for the murder of William Williams, sub-postmaster of Fforestfach Post Office.[15]

Last death sentences

Northern Ireland and in the United Kingdom: William Holden in 1973 in Northern Ireland, for the capital murder of a British soldier during the Troubles. Holden was removed from the death cell in May 1973.[16]

England: David Chapman, who was sentenced to hang in November 1965 for the murder of a swimming pool nightwatchman in Scarborough. He was released from prison in 1979 and later died in a car accident.

Scotland: Patrick McCarron in 1964 for shooting his wife. He hanged himself in prison in 1970.

Wales: Edgar Black, who was reprieved on 6 November 1963. He had shot his wife’s lover in Cardiff.

On 20 May 1998 the House of Commons voted to ratify the 6th Protocol of the European Convention on Human Rights prohibiting capital punishment except “in time of war or imminent threat of war.” The last remaining provisions for the death penalty under military jurisdiction (including in wartime) were removed when section 21(5) of the Human Rights Act 1998 came into force on 9 November 1998. On 10 October 2003, effective from 1 February 2004,[20] the UK acceded to the 13th Protocol, which prohibits the death penalty under all circumstances,[21] so that the UK may no longer legislate to restore the death penalty while it is subject to the Convention. It can only now restore it if it withdraws from the Council of Europe.

As a legacy from colonial times, several islands in the West Indies still had the British Judicial Committee of the Privy Council as the court of final appeal; although the death penalty has been retained in these islands, the Privy Council would sometimes delay or deny executions. Some of these islands severed links with the British court system in 2001 in order to speed up executions.[22]

In the Channel Islands, the last death sentence was passed in 1984; the last execution in the Channel Islands was in Jersey on 9 October 1959, when Francis Joseph Huchet was hanged for murder.[23] The Human Rights (Amendment) (Jersey) Order 2006[24] amends the Human Rights (Jersey) Law 2000[25] to give effect to the 13th Protocol of the European Convention on Human Rightsproviding for the total abolition of the death penalty. Both of these laws came into effect on 10 December 2006. The 13th Protocol was extended to Guernsey in April 2004.[26]

The last execution on the Isle of Man took place in 1872, when John Kewish was hanged for patricide. Capital punishment was not formally abolished by Tynwald (the island’s parliament) until 1993.[27]Five persons were sentenced to death (for murder) on the Isle of Man between 1973 and 1992, although all sentences were commuted to life imprisonment. The last person to be sentenced to death in the UK or its dependencies was Anthony Teare, who was convicted at the Manx Court of General Gaol Delivery in Douglas in 1992; he was subsequently retried and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1994.[28] In 2004 the 13th Protocol was adopted,[29] with an effective date of 1 November 2006.[30]

Overseas territories

Like the Crown dependencies, the British overseas territories are constitutionally not part of the United Kingdom. However, the British government’s ultimate responsibility for good governance of the territories has led it over recent years to pursue a policy of revoking all statutory provision for the death penalty in those territories where it had up until recently been legal.

The last executions in an overseas territory, and indeed the last on British soil, took place in Bermuda in 1977, when two men, Larry Tacklyn and Erskine Burrows, were hanged for the 1973 murder of the then territory’s Governor Sir Richard Sharples.[31]

The British government was unable to extend the abolition via Order in Council to Bermuda, the UK’s most autonomous overseas territory with powers of almost total self-governance — but warned that if voluntary abolition was not forthcoming it would be forced to consider the unprecedented step of ‘whether to impose abolition by means of an Act of Parliament’.[33] As a result the Bermudian government introduced its own domestic legislation in 1999 to rectify the problem.[34]

Further measures have subsequently been adopted to revoke technicalities in British overseas territories’ domestic legislation as regards use of the death penalty for crimes of treason and piracy. Since 2002, the death penalty has been outlawed under all circumstances in all the UK’s overseas territories.[35]

Public support for reintroduction of capital punishment

A November 2009 television survey showed that 70% favoured reinstating the death penalty for at least one of the following crimes: armed robbery, rape, crimes related to paedophilia, terrorism, adult murder, child murder, child rape, treason, child abuse, or kidnapping. However, respondents only favoured capital punishment for adult murder, the polling question asked by other organisations such asGallup, by small majorities or pluralities: overall, 51% favoured the death penalty for adult murder, while 56% in Wales did, 55% in Scotland, and only 49% in England.[36]

In August 2011, the Internet blogger Paul Staines – who writes a political blog as Guido Fawkes and heads the Restore Justice Camptign – launched an e-petition on the Downing Street website calling for the restoration of the death penalty for those convicted of the murder of children and police officers.[37] The petition was one of several in support or opposition of capital punishment to be published by the government with the launch of its e-petitions website. As of August 12, an e-petition calling to retain the ban on capital punishment has received 20,000 votes[38], 17000 more than the e-petition calling for the reinstatement of the death penalty.[39] Petitions attracting 100,000 signatures would prompt a parliamentary debate on a particular topic, but not necessarily lead to any Parliamentary Bills being put forward.[40]

Also in August 2011, a representative survey conducted by Angus Reid Public Opinion showed that 65 per cent of Britons support reinstating the death penalty for murder in Great Britain, while 28 per cent oppose this course of action. Men, respondents aged 35-to-54 and those over the age of 55 are more likely to endorse the change.[41]

1931, 3 January: Victor Betts for murder committed during the course of a robbery. The case had established that a person need not be present when a crime is committed to be regarded as an accessory after the fact.[42]

1946, 3 January: William Joyce, better known as “Lord Haw-Haw“, for treason in London’s Wandsworth Prison. He was an American citizen, but was convicted of treason because, as the holder of aBritish passport (albeit fraudulently obtained), he was held to have owed allegiance to the British sovereign. Theodore Schurch, hanged for treachery the next day, was the last person to be executed for an offence other than murder; he was executed at Pentonville. As a member of the armed forces he had been tried by court-martial.

1947, 27 February: Walter Rowland in Manchester for the murder of Olive Balchin despite maintaining his innocence. While he had been awaiting execution, another man confessed to the crime.[citation needed] A Home Office report dismissed the latter’s confession as a fake, but in 1951 he attacked another woman and was found guilty but insane.[citation needed]

1949, 12 January: Margaret Allen, aged 43, for killing a 70-year-old woman in the course of a robbery, the first woman to be hanged in Britain for 12 years.

1950, 9 March: Timothy Evans at Pentonville for the murder of his baby daughter Geraldine at 10 Rillington Place, North West London. He initially claimed to have killed his wife, but later withdrew the claim. A fellow inhabitant at the same address, John Christie, later found to be a sexual serial killer, gave key evidence against Evans. Christie was executed in 1953 for the murder of his own wife. Evans received a posthumous pardon in 1966. In 2004 the Court of Appeal refused to consider overturning the conviction due to the costs and resources that would be involved. See John Christie (murderer).

1950, 28 March: George Kelly at Liverpool for murder, but had his conviction quashed posthumously by the Court of Appeal in June 2003.

1952, 25 April: Edward Devlin and Alfred Burns, for killing a woman during a robbery in Liverpool. They claimed that they had been doing a different burglary in Manchester, and others involved in the crime supported this. A Home Office report rejected this evidence. Huge crowds gathered outside Liverpool’s Walton Prison as they were executed.

1952, 3 September: Mahmood Hussein Mattan, a Somali seaman, in Cardiff for murder. The Court of Appeal quashed his conviction posthumously in 1998[43] after hearing that crucial evidence implicating another Somali was withheld at his trial.

1953, 28 January: Derek Bentley at Wandsworth Prison as an accomplice to the murder of a police officer by his 16-year-old friend Christopher Craig. Craig, a minor, was not executed and instead served 10 years. Bentley was granted a posthumous pardon on 29 July 1993, and the Court of Appeal overturned his conviction on 30 July 1998.

1962, 4 April: James Hanratty at Bedford after a controversial rape-murder trial. In 2002 Hanratty’s body was exhumed and the Court of Appeal upheld his conviction after Hanratty’s DNA was linked to crime scene samples.